In gun debate, two sides speak different languages

ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 31, 2012 12:01 AM

FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, Josh Nelson, campaign manager, CREDO Mobile, speaks after his group was denied entrance to the Williard InterContinental Hotel where they wanted to deliver a petition to the National Rifle Association calling for the NRA to get out of the way of gun control, as the NRA holds a news conference in Washington. The divide between those who favor gun control and those who don't has existed for decades, separating America into hostile camps of conservative vs. liberal, rural vs. urban. As the nation responds to the massacre of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., the gulf has rarely felt wider than now. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)FR170079 AP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 31, 2012 12:01 AM

WEXFORD -- Inside the Big Buck Sport Shop, the customers have no doubt: More gun laws will not save lives.

Fifteen miles south, in the city of Pittsburgh, many confronted by a steady stream of gun violence are just as certain: To reduce the carnage, stricter gun control is needed.

Listening to the public discourse, and to citizens in places like Pittsburgh and the Big Buck Sport Shop, people seem to be speaking different languages entirely. Communication has broken down amid a flurry of accusations and denials.

"You have to place some people in the category of 'you cannot communicate with them,'" Big Buck salesman Dave Riddle said Friday.

Harry Wilson, a Roanoke College political science professor, would like gun control advocates to know: "Gun owners are not idiots. Gun owners are not in favor of gun violence. Gun owners are in many ways like them, and would genuinely like to see gun violence reduced. Obviously they have a different solution. But they're people too, just with different perspectives."

"And what I would want gun owners to know is, the large majority of people in favor of gun control don't really want to take all of your guns."